Presently available on the market are a wide variety of data storage devices including for example Winchester hard disc drives, floppy disc drives and others. With these devices data can be stored by using both magnetic and optical techniques. These devices include appropriate circuitry for allowing for the accurate placement of a read/write head relative to one of a plurality of data tracks which are formatted on, for example, a rigid or floppy disc. In these prior devices, the circuitry for seeking the appropriate track is divided into several seek functions. The first seek function is that of a servo velocity control whereby servo velocity control circuitry causes the head to seek to the destination track and then settles between the boundaries of that track. The second seek function is that of a servo position control whereby the servo position control circuitry causes the head to follow the centerline of the destination track. As servo velocity control circuitry, prior art devices use glass scales, encoders, and other devices for counting tracks so that from a departure track, a calculation can be made to determine how far the head must traverse until a destination track is reached, and for monitoring the progress of the head towards the destination track. Additionally, one or more servo sectors can be provided on each track which includes the number of the track so that the head can read a track number and know which track it is over and thus its position.
The servo position control circuitry is used to read servo patterns or bursts which are located in the servo sectors of the tracks. By reading these bursts and taking the difference of the signals from the bursts, the servo circuitry can determine whether the head is on the centerline or to the right or left of the centerline of a track and make appropriate adjustments. Discussion of the servo position control circuitry can be obtained from a review of U.S. Pat. No. 4,488,187 and 4,630,190 which are assigned to the present Assignee, SyQuest Technology and which are incorporated herein by reference.
Further in some prior art devices as a destination track is approached, the servo velocity control circuitry hands off control of the seek function to the servo position control circuitry. Such a switch to the servo position control circuitry can at times result in the head overshooting the destination track.
In prior art devices, when the head overshoots the destination track, such devices are generally not capable of seeking back to the destination track using the servo position control circuitry, but must revert to servo velocity control circuitry again and then back to the servo position control circuitry in order to settle on the destination track. Quite naturally this can increase the access time to an unacceptable level.
While the above devices perform successfully, as the need arises to store more data in a smaller area, and as computers become more powerful and faster, resulting in the need for faster data access times, there is a need to increase both the speed and the accuracy of the heads for seeking out the centerline of a track.